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Artists often come up with concepts and ideas that require help to reach the light of day, and whenever an artist teams up with a scientist the unlikely duo is most likely on the verge of making an incredible discovery. Case and point-the collaboration between Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi and Utah State researcher Randy Lewis has resulted in a bulletproof, skin-like material that has been fabricated from silk threads produced by a genetically modified silk worm. And the ultimate point of this exercise in left brain/right brain cooperation? To someday create a synthetic human skin and artificial tendons and ligaments. Read more on this fascinating development over at PhysOrg.
With livestock farmers on both sides of the family, I thought all manure was eco-friendly up to a point. But domesticated pigs have excess phosphorus in both their urine and feces, which does awful things to the water supply and organisms living in the water. Now researchers in Canada have developed a genetically-altered “Enviropig” that produces plenty of the enzyme a pig needs to process phosphorus.
To fix this problem, the scientists tinkered with the swine’s genes to make the pig produce its own phytase in its salivary glands. When the cereal grains are consumed, they mix with the phytase in the saliva, and throughout the pig’s digestive tract the enzyme works to break down the phosphorous in the food. With more phosphorus retained within the body, the amount excreted in waste is reduced by almost 65 percent, say researchers.
The researchers who created the Enviropig say it’s not just eco-friendly, but it also cut farmers’ feed-supplement costs. If the pigs eventually become common, they could also help U.S. farmers comply with “zero discharge” rules that forbid pork producers from releasing nitrogen or phosphorus runoff.
The pigs are now being raised on test farms, and won’t be available to consumers anywhere for a few years. Link
Sean Konrad caught a 48-pound rainbow trout. That’s a world record. But should it be? The trout he caught was a genetically-modified fish that escaped from a fish farm. It has three sets of chromosomes, which makes it sterile but able to grow unnaturally big. Konrad’s brother Adam caught the previous world record trout in 2007, which was also genetically modified. Whether this counts as cheating depends on how you see the sport of fishing. No matter where the fish came from, the fisherman still landed it, which involves a certain set of skills. However, fisherman elsewhere don’t have the opportunity to even try to catch a trout that big, because they don’t exist in nature. What do you think? Link
The food we eat – from corn to cattle – has been domestically modified for thousands of years. Today scientists, agronomists and geneticistsare taking the next step: improving our food from the inside out.
Allergic to tomatoes? It’s more likely than you think – up to 16 percent of people are sensitive to tomatoes, adding extra complications to life in a world of free-flowing ketchup, tomato sauce and burgers with the works. It’s not tomatoes themselves that are at fault, it’s a small protein called Profilin. By silencing two genes responsible for Profilin production in tomatoes, scientists can create non-allergenic fruit that are otherwise completely normal in taste, texture and appearance.
Previously: 7 Intriguing Genetically Modified Fruits and Vegetables.
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